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Low tech, high quality: A photographer’s guide to taking great lunar eclipse pictures

One of the more spectacular sights in the night sky is a lunar eclipse. That’s when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, leaving the latter in the earth’s shadow.

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A moonar eclipse gives the earth’s largest satellite a seemingly unnatural orange tint. But it’s not really unnatural, it’s simply rare. It’s even more rare here in the Pacific Northwest because the night sky is so often obscured by clouds. But on a good, clear night, it can be seen in all its eerie glory.

And, lucky for us, there’s a nighttime eclipse coming up tomorrow! It can be seen in our area between about 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.

According to Wikipedia, it will have an umbral magnitude of 1.1526. I don’t know what that means, but offhand, I suspect that magnitudes of umbrage don’t get much more impressive than that.

What better way to remember a moonar eclipse with that much umbrage than with photographs?

In spite of the darkness and distance, it’s not that difficult to take good pictures of a lunar eclipse. You don’t need a high-priced camera, an equatorial mount, or even a tripod. In fact, too much hardware or technology will actually reduce your chances of getting the perfect shot. You’d be too preoccupied with technicalities to fully appreciate the astral beauty unfolding above you.

Photographers who consider themselves to be an artist (pronounced arteest by the highfalutin) go far beyond what’s necessary to get a great picture. First off, they prepare, which is baloney. Preparation is for sissies and hemorrhoids. All you really need is to be confident.

Second, you don’t need an expensive, sophisticated camera, either. While the photographic elite use cutting-edge, state-of-the-art cameras, the one I use is 20 years old, with 25-year-old technology.

The two key words to remember when choosing a camera are cheap and old.

If you have confidence and a cheap, old camera, the only other thing you need is a steady hand.

Because cheap, old cameras don’t have image stabilization or the ability to take automatic time exposures, you need to hold the camera steady and take your best guess as to how long to hold down the shutter button.

Of course, I would not give this kind of advice if I didn’t practice it myself. Using my cheap, old, low-technology camera and employing the simple techniques described above, I took this incredible picture of a moonar eclipse several years ago:

Confidence, a cheap camera, and a steady hand are all it takes to take great lunar eclipse pictures like this one. Photo by Greg Spadoni.

With this easy, short, straight-to-the-point guide, you’re all set to take some great pictures of the lunar eclipse in the early hours of tomorrow.

Good luck, good shooting, and may your umbrage be high!

— Greg Spadoni, March 2, 2026